Inkscape boasts outstanding features and a passionate user base for a free program, but it's not suitable for busy professionals.

Draw Freely is Inkscape's apt tagline—and what could be better than free, professional-level software that works on both Mac and Windows platforms? Not much, but for seasoned users of popular, industry-leading design software like Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape comes with a price in the form of a steep learning curve and an unwieldy interface, especially for Mac users.

Inkscape is a vector graphics creation and editing application that's free to download and use on not only Windows and Mac, but also on GNU/Linux operating systems. If you are a PC-based illustrator, a designer who is subscription-averse, or you're unable to invest in expensive software packages, then Inkscape might be for you. However, expect a learning (or unlearning) curve if you are accustomed to working in mainstream products like CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator.

Inkscape is open-source software, which means that while the authors retain copyright, they have released the source code so that the public can further the program's development collaboratively. In fact, Inkscape encourages its robust community to devise and code function-enhancing extensions and add-ons, as well as to debug glitches. If you are not a coder, fear not—you can still join in the fun and use the software. Despite having been in continuous development since 2003, Inkscape is still technically pre-release software at version 0.92.4; version 1 is currently in alpha, but only on Linux.

The primary file format Inkscape uses is the widely supported Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG), a cross-platform, open file format that can produce lossless, relatively compact files, especially compared with bitmaps. Small file size is a benefit when creating art for the web because smaller files upload and download more quickly. Good news too, is that all prevalent web browsers, both desktop and mobile, support SVG rendering. The program can also import Adobe Illustrator .AI files, CorelDraw .CDR files, and some other common formats, but for many you need to use the UniConverter utility, and some details are usually lost in the translation.

Pricing and Getting Started

Downloading and installing Inkscape from inkscape.org is fairly straightforward for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows architectures. It's even available on the OS's app store to streamline installation and updating. If you are still running Windows XP, you are out of luck. For GNU/Linux users, you have the format choices of Flatpack, snap, or ppa. The download page has handy release notes including screenshots of what's new in each release and a listing of known bugs.

I tested Inkscape on a MacBook Pro 2018 with a 2.9GHz Intel Core i9 processor and 32GB of RAM as well as on a Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10, with a 2.5GHz Core i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM.

Installation is, however, far from a cinch for Mac users. The process is more demanding because you need to install an earlier, less-stable version (0.92.2). Plus, you also need to download a Graphic User Interface (GUI) application called XQuartz in order to display it. At this writing, there is no support for high-resolution Retina displays.

Alternatively, if are savvy enough, you can build the more stable version, Inkscape 0.92.4, yourself using MacPorts, provided you have XCode onboard. I quickly went the former route, though when I did, a piece of malware piggybacked during transmission, since I ill-advisedly downloaded from a third-party site. Note that I am using a Mac, and this was my first-time virus. I am mighty thankful for Malwarebytes technology which crushed it.

Now that the file is downloaded, you need to install it. If you have active browser security settings on your computer, you need to override them by Ctrl-clicking on the app icon, then opening it from that popup menu. Also, the macOS app is not 64-bit, which means that it won't be able to take advantage of extra performance and large file sizes. Eventually when the Mac's 64-bit transition is complete (Mojave is the last OS version to run 32-bit apps), Inkscape won't be compatible unless it is optimized in time.

Vector vs Raster

Vector-based programs like Inkscape and Illustrator share a fundamental difference in how images are defined from Bitmap editors like Adobe Photoshop. Vector graphics are defined with points, lines, and Bezier curves, and have the advantage that they are infinitely enlargeable without loss of resolution or image quality. This is key when you are designing a huge billboard or other large graphics where scalability is a requisite. A second advantage of designing with vectors is that files tend to be much smaller than their raster counterparts, which is great for fast loads on websites. Conversely, raster-based artwork like that created in Photoshop, is defined by pixels. When you enlarge raster art, the pixels enlarge too, resulting in visible pixelation, or chunkiness with ragged edges.

Interface and Speed

On both PC and Mac, Inkscape is an eyesore—worse so on the Mac because everything you see is chunky because of anti-aliasing issues. This is because Macs must run a less-stable version, which is incompatible with Retina and high-resolution Mac Screens (at this writing). Though the interface is smoother in Windows, there's no specific support for touch or stylus input. The program isn't optimized for high-DPI Windows PCs, either.

There's a lot going on in the interface, so I benefitted from going to View > Hide to hide some panels until I learned my way around. Note that Inkscape refers to panels and palettes as dialogs. On the top of the program window is the Tools Control Bar, to the immediate right is the Snap Controls Bar, and on the far right, the Commands Bar. On the left is the main Toolbox, and on the bottom, is the Status Bar and Color Palette. If you wish to streamline the interface further, you can also show or hide the Rulers at the top and the Scroll Bars on each side, as well as guides and dialog boxes.

Designing in Inkscape

Typography, Bezier illustration, and preparing files for export and printing are three activities that commonly engage designers, so I put Inkscape to the test with these tasks.

Text-handling tools and features in Inkscape are basic, much like those you find in word processing programs. What's different from word processing programs is the easy ability to create standalone, frameless text lines (called Regular Text in Inkscape and Point Type in Illustrator) in addition to paragraph type (called Flow Text in Inkscape and Area Type in Illustrator). The latter exists in a text frame whose boundaries control line breaks and position. Using Flow Text, you can set type within any shape, and with Regular Text, you can run type along any path.

A word of caution, however: Inkscape's Flow Text is not supported outside the app, so you need to convert it to Regular Text in advance of exporting for website art, for example. Also, if you copy and paste text from Illustrator or other programs with more-sophisticated typography tools, Inkscape may paste gobbledygook. To fix this, Inkscape has a Remove Manual Kerns feature that eliminates all custom formatting and usually solves the problem.

I find the program's formatting features significantly less flexible than those of similar programs, such as CorelDraw. Accessing OpenType features is cumbersome, and you must manually assign specific features like alternate styles and discretionary ligatures. Other drawbacks are the inability to create paragraph or character styles, and spot formatting within Flow Text often results in a global change. There is, however, a good spellcheck tool, which I find works better than Illustrator's.

Inkscape elevates itself with a full-featured and well-working toolset for creating, editing, and transforming vectors. Each tool has its own preference dialog box that appears with a double-click on the tool. Included are all the resources you'd expect and need to make basic angle- and curve-based shapes, as well as special polygons. Tools include a pen, brush, freehand pencil, spiral tool, paint bucket, and an object sprayer.

Inkscape can handle point-to-point gradients and has a separate mesh tool for complex blends. The program packs interesting tools like the Diagram Connector, a 3-D Box tool (which does what it says, as well as adding handy perspective lines specific to each shape), and a Sculpt/Paint tool that lets you push and nudge paths.

You'll also find an adequate tracing tool for turning color and black-and-white bitmaps into vectors—though this tool crashed every time I tried it on my machine. Once you have your shapes drawn, Inkscape impresses, with a wide range of snapping tools to control precise placement and all the path operations you need to direct how the shapes and paths interact.

Filters and Extension Magic

I love to play with filters and plug-ins in any app, and Inkscape includes a dazzling array of fun effects as part of the basic download. Under the Filters Menu, the thrill is real with 18 preinstalled categories from which to choose. Many of the categories have more than a dozen options—plus Inkscape includes a filter editor to extend the fun. Some of them are over-the-top novelties, but many could be useful in the right hands and for the right project. Don't forget that there is a community of users developing and sharing unique filters and other plug-ins.

While Inkscape's filters and plug-ins are fun for all, the tools under the extensions menu are more useful. With extensions, you can convert your text to braille, create several types of bar codes, generate a calendar, produce several types of grids, and even conjure a foldable box with just one click.

Several extensions boost control of InkScape's object arrangement tools, like deep ungrouping and re-stacking based on variables of position or order. Under the Color section you'll find another set of keen tools that provide robust, multifaceted control of vector objects' color, similar to those you'd find in Photoshop (or other pixel-based editors) or with the Astute Graphics Illustrator plug-in, Phantasm. Here you can manipulate hue, saturation, and light, create a negative, and randomize or replace colorways. There are also more-advanced export options for web design and development, JessyInk presentations, plotters, and more.

If you are an algorithmic art fiend, then there is a ton of fun to be found under the Render section, which offers a Function Plotter, LaTeX Formula path generator and parametric curve routine, a Random Tree maker, a Lindenmeyer fractal tool (L-System)—and even an interactive Spirograph tool!

Though Inkscape may not shine for Mac Users or Adobe-dependent designers, it certainly incandesces when it comes to its higher-level production and development features, spectrum of mathematics-based rendering tools, and the power of crowdsourced feature development. (Note that many extensions are not yet updated for versions after 0.912.)

Output Options

In the end, we all need to send our work somewhere. To that end, it's fortunate that Inkscape's SVG format is widely accepted, because preparing files for commercial printing can get tricky in Inkscape. The application neither supports process color (CMYK) nor spot color (Pantone) specifications, so if your work is destined for the press, you have two options: You can ask if your printer will convert your files to CMYK for you, or you can use a different program such as Adobe Acrobat or the open-source Scribus to make the conversion.

If your files are bound for a screen (web, tablet, or app design), the process is easier, because you can export as an optimized SVG, PMG or even HTML. The only limitation here is that Inkscape can't export as JPG, so you'll have to use another program for that as well.

Whether bound for press or screen, your file's SVG code may have become bloated with data retained from earlier stages of your design. Cleaning up these large files and sloppy code helps to reduce crashing and performance decline. You can tidy it all up by editing the code directly in the XML editor panel or (my preference) by executing the Clean Up Document command. And remember in all cases, Flow Text needs to be converted as well.

Drawbacks With Inkscape on Mac

Yes, Inkscape is free, but for the Macintosh community, there exist substantive deal-breakers. The first is compatibility. Inkscape doesn't recognize my curation of typefaces, nor is it compatible with Suitcase Fusion, my choice font manager, in which I have made hundreds of custom classifications and keywords, all of which expedite my work. What's more, it doesn't work with other global widgets I have installed in my finder toolbar like Magnet or PopClip, which I use regularly during my workflow.

Another drawback is Inkscape's limited support for key commands. Power users who rely heavily on key commands rather than slogging through pulldown menus may be temporarily powerless while they learn Inkscape's keyboard quirks and shortcuts. Also, sizing objects while pressing the Shift key does not constrain the aspect ratio as it does in most graphics applications.

Inkscape can't copy and paste from other graphics applications, though you can copy images from the internet and paste successfully. On the other hand, you can copy from Inkscape into Illustrator, but the image is placed and embedded as a bitmap TIFF rather than a vector.

On the Mac, the Inkscape menu bar presents no window beneath it. To access your work window, you must return to XQuartz, where you'll find the Inkscape menu bar living just below XQuartz's. In other words, Inkscape runs inside the XQuartz window. The dual menu bars are confusing and the tendency to click the wrong menu quickly becomes irksome.

So, if you tend to pop in and out of applications routinely you may be frustrated by your efforts to summon the right application and window with the right toolbar. Lastly, Control-clicking does not bring up a contextual menu as it does in most Mac apps.

Helpful Resources

The Inkscape website (inkscape.org) makes a compelling effort to interest users and keep them comfortable. In addition to the release notes, you'll find avenues to engage yourself as part of the user and development community, to browse tutorials, read Q&As, and chat with a forum of users about your questions or troubleshooting attempts. Within the app itself, hovering tooltips are a big help. Online, you can search through tutorials galore and find just the answers you need.

An Entrée to Vector Design

Inkscape offers vector novices a way to get their fingers wet and explore the Bezier world. It levels the accessibility field by providing a free, solid-featured program to anyone who wants to learn it. However, this software doesn't meet the needs of heavy-use mainstream designers who expect compatibility between apps, stable performance, and a state-of-the-art interface. If you try Inkscape, learn it, and love it—fantastic. If you subsequently snag a regular paying client or two, consider coughing up for the CorelDRAW suite or Adobe Illustrator, our Editors' Choice. Yes, Inkscape has some unique tricks, but it's just not fun to use. Centralized support is limited, and for Macophiles its interface is uncomfortably different. This is a tool that too often throws up roadblocks between users and their work.

Read More

About the Author

Shelby Putnam Tupper is founder and creative director of Shelby Designs Inc., a small-but-mighty, full-service, customer-obsessed design consultancy. She graduated from Trinity College in Connecticut with a BS in biology and a minor in French. She did post-graduate work at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where she received honors in th... See Full Bio

Inkscape

Inkscape

Get Our Best Stories!

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.